American Desperado: My life as a Cocaine Cowboy - Couverture souple

Roberts, Jon; Wright, Evan

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0091945224 ISBN 13 : 9780091945220

Editeur : Ebury Press, 2012

Synopsis

"American Desperado" is possibly the most jaw-dropping, event-filled, adrenaline-soaked criminal autobiography ever written. Like a real-life Scarface Jon was born into the upper levels of the Gambino crime family and witnessed his first murder at age seven. He became a one-man juvenile crime wave before joining an assassination squad in Vietnam. He returned to New York at age 20 to become one of the city's top nightclub promoters, then journeyed to Miami where he became the de facto transportation chief of the Medellin Cartel, and along with a tech-wizard partner, created some of the most sophisticated smuggling technologies ever. With a hulking 6'6" bodyguard always at his side, and a rural fortress protected by mortars, tear-gas cannons, and a gold-fanged attack dog, Roberts was brutally effective at what he did. To law enforcement, he was known as the "Bearded Gringo", a spectre they could never touch. To United States senators and CIA officials, he was "the guy who can get things done". He eventually formed a clandestine alliance with the US government and in the end found personal late-life redemption.

A propos du livre

Quatrième de couverture :

During the 1980s criminal legend Jon Roberts was the no.1 supplier of cocaine in the US, smuggling over 15 billion dollars-worth. But that is only the start of his extraordinary dark tale. . .

A real-life Scarface, Jon was born into the Gambino mafia family and witnessed his first murder aged seven. To escape a teen criminal charge he agreed to join a US army assassination squad in Vietnam. Returning to New York he became one of the city's top nightclub promoters until he was forced to flee to Miami. There he reinvented himself as the de facto transportation chief of the Medellín Cartel and, along with a tech-wizard partner, created some of the most sophisticated smuggling technologies ever. With a crazed bodyguard always at his side, and a fortress protected by mortars, tear-gas cannons and a gold-fanged attack dog, Roberts was brutally effective at what he did.

To law enforcement, he was the "Bearded Gringo", a spectre they could never touch. To the CIA, he was "the guy who can get things done". With a cast that includes everyone from Jimi Hendrix and OJ Simpson, to General Noriega and Pablo Escobar, American Desperado is the most jaw-dropping, adrenaline-soaked criminal autobiography you'll ever read.

'A TOUR DE FORCE. THE BEST CRIME BOOK SINCE WISEGUY' RICH COHEN

Revue de presse :

"An American criminal mastermind" (Ed Caesar Sunday Times)

"A spellbinding narrative of drugs, death and debauchery as told by one of America's most notorious criminals... A savage, unrelenting tale" (Kirkus Reviews)

"A tour de force. The best crime book since Wiseguy. Puts you in the middle of a world where it's wonderful to be a tourist, terrible to be a resident. I am filled with nothing but admiration and envy for Evan Wright" (Rich Cohen, author of THE FISH THAT ATE THE WHALE)

"Imagine if Mister Kurtz from Heart of Darkness sat down with Dick Cavett for a little chat about the nature of good and evil, empathy, fatherhood, violence, drugs, power, self-knowledge, women, family, the hero versus the anti-hero, freedom, imprisonment...Try as you might, you can't really put this book down" (Doug Stanton, author of HORSE SOLDIERS and IN HARM’S WAY)

"Seldom have I read an account of criminal enterprise that took me so deeply into the blackness of a man’s soul – a scary read, pounding and relentless and irresistible" (Bruce Porter, author of BLOW)

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Ebury Press
• Date d'édition: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0091945224
• ISBN 13: 9780091945220
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 576